Islamism & Islamophobia Abroad - News & Analysis

[brihaspati]

Long term yes - but short term they will grip it in a death vice - as the source of ideological survival.

[Raghavendra]

China, hip-hop and the new Sudan http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/afric ... sudan.jal/

"You have a government that declared jihad against the people in Southern Sudan and has set up a system based on wrong foundations. A first-class citizen is a Muslim Arab and a second-class citizen is his wife, a third-class citizen is an African who has converted to Islam and a fourth-class citizen is his wife. A fifth-class citizen is a non-believer and a sixth class citizen is his wife.

[chandrabhan]

Brihaspatiji,
I cant imagine a group of people who are so prone to violence and sustain it for such along time. the angst, anger, hatred works both ways. it cuts from within. Peace is inherent for the soul, mindless rage is a sure shot way to degeneration of vlaues that separate us from animals - the difference between Chaitnaya and Achaitanya is rationality.

The way islam cuts the root of the convert is mind-boggling, the whole loyalty is towards Arabia. What happens to the other tenets that make up a civilisation..

1. Race

2. Culture

3. Shared values

Will they not have an impact in long run, being cut from the roots?

[arun]

The bloody global trail of Muslim violence targeting other religions.

In Tunisia in a story datelined Feb. 2 the Jews at the receiving end:

Synagogue torched in Tunisia: Jewish leader

Moving on from Tunsia to Egypt and from Jews to Christians in a story datelined Feb. 3:

Islamists killed 11 Coptic Christians in Egypt, report

Moving further still from Tunsia to Egypt to Thailand and from Jews to Christians to Buddhists in a story also datelined Feb. 3:

5 Buddhists killed, 4 others injured in Pattani attack

[joshvajohn]

It is essential that Islamicphobia is commenly not because of any reality that all Islamic nations are terror supporting nations nor all Muslims are terror sympathisers. There is a clear cut campaign by the Western media (with exceptions) against Islam and Muslims among their own public. This needs a lot of corrections. Media practitioners should have played a reasonable role in building communities across the religions and particularly promoted some positive images about Islam among the Western nations. Unfortunately except some, many media institutions are convinced that Islam and Muslims are monolithic communities and they all practice the same religion of sympathising terror. Particularly they promote idea that Islamic countries hate Western liberal culture and particularly against other religions including Christianity and Hinduism. Many of these assumptions are completely wrong.

If someone goes to UAE, one may realise that many Hindus and Christians live along with Muslims without much problems. Many examples can be found out. Certainly in some countries such as Pakistan it is the tribalism mixed with Islam that creates intentional problems for the minorities. It is increasingly becoming difficult for minorities to live in Pakistan. There again it is the minority phobia among the Majority Muslims as if they are going to corrupt their religion and values.

If anyone is keen to address this issue, the task is multifaced. Muslims have written a common word to Christians recentely. This is an excellent example of how Muslims themselves find it is essential to reach out to Christians and find out common teachings that can help both communities to live together. http://www.acommonword.com/ In this many Islamic scholars have signed.

The question is who is the neighbour whom many religions wanted to coexist as he or she is without trying to change his or her religion forcefully or without interfering into their faith practices and even offering a friendship beyond any boundaries? the understanding of neighbour has to go beyond the religious cultural and linguistic barriers. It is essential that all the religions have to challenge each other on this basis. Even in Pakistan this is one of the major problem with the religious leaders who has often defined non-muslim neighbours as infidels and corrupt which can lead majority to see them as threat and enemies and give licesence to kill with the support of the law (Blasphemy) and so on. this is where it is essential religions need to be challenged on this question. some of the matured religions including Jainism and Buddhism (particularly Bahai) have promoted universal brotherhood. In Indian Philosophy both advaita and vishita advaita have highlighted the importance of all being from and into Ultimate reality (Brahman). such concepts make it very clear about the way in which humanity is seen to be arising from something common and returning into it.

Islam and Christianity need to grow into it. Particularly Islam which is increasingly becoming very evangelical religion of the East and making impact on many people's lives in the West has to see the wider world view and challenge them but give up the terror aspects and kind of submission not to human being but to God as ultimate motive. The terror groups' leaders have played god and thus demanded full submission of human beings to them and thus manipulated human beings into a selfsacrifice killing many other people from other religions. This is against Islam's basic tenants.

Christianity too has some fundamentalist groups who play the same god game with their prosperiety Gospel and their fortune telling facilities. These are alien concepts being introduced in the name of revival and renewal all talking only about money. Each religion has good things to contribute to humanity while each religion can challenge other religions on their wrong doings. In this way some public correctness and awareness need to be promoted to live in a world of multicultural realities without imposing on each other one's own faith without terrorising minorities without creating fear of the other in the mindset of majority. Every religion has to look internally and possibly become self-critical and sometime people across religions can join together to challenge some of these fundamentalistic groups that threaten the basic nature and cohesion of the society together. I think this is possible through research and studies and promoting awareness among different religious groups.

For this more inter-religious centres should be established across the world to promote such mature understanding of religions and their relationship.

[sanjaykumar]

Every religion has to look internally and possibly become self-critical ......


I suppose that is how Jimmy Falwell, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Bakker, Glenn Beck got rich. Or is that just the just rewards of manifest destiny?

A shift in global GDP to godless China and too-many-goded India will do more for the soul searching than cerebral analysis.

Ever wonder why Japan's heathens are not the target of the Jesus brigade? (Hint: Those particular heathens might laugh them off their island)

[Dipanker]

Why I am getting a feeling that this ongoing and continuos violence will lead many muslims to get out of Islam. I see a violent and nuclear death for this tool of 'Arabian empire'

Problem is leaving Islam makes them Wajib-ul-Qatal, a fair game for any pious muslim to enforce the punishment, thus the faithful are all inmates of Hotel California.

[RamaY]

Brihaspatiji,
I cant imagine a group of people who are so prone to violence and sustain it for such along time. the angst, anger, hatred works both ways. it cuts from within. Peace is inherent for the soul, mindless rage is a sure shot way to degeneration of vlaues that separate us from animals - the difference between Chaitnaya and Achaitanya is rationality.

That is not entirely true. While Peace is inherent need, human psyche is attracted to chaos and animism. The journey of one from that animism to that inherent peace is what makes a human human.

Islam sanctifies that animism in an individual under various religious dicta. Islam can sustain as long as it is not (enforced) mass conversion. An individual cannot escape the wrath of Islam if he tries to cross the border alone or in small members.

Imagine what would have been the alternative outcome for Turkey, if Ataturk were to mass convert the entire nation to say Buddhism.

[Sidd]

What Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi and Veena Malik what have in common

I don’t care what the administrator of a religious body said — especially since it was essentially neutral and non-newsworthy. Does it affect the common Muslim if Vastanvi says Gujarat has developed under Modi? (Well, hasn’t it?) Can we stop feeling that all Muslims are being crushed underfoot when, in fact, they may not be — or that 2002 was a unique occurrence and not the norm? Muslims: stop playing victims where it isn’t warranted. Media: stop your silly shenanigans. There’s too much noise when all one should hear is a big yawn.

[wig]

perhaps some tech savvy rakshaks could unravel some such civilisations swamped by usurpers

Google Earth finds Saudi Arabia's forbidden archaeological secrets-An armchair archaeologist has identified nearly 2,000 potentially important sites in Saudi Arabia using Google Earth, despite never having visited the country

David Kennedy, a professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Western Australia, used Google Earth satellite maps to pinpoint 1,977 potential archaeological sites, including 1,082 teardrop shaped stone tombs.

"I've never been to Saudi Arabia," Dr Kennedy said. "It's not the easiest country to break into."

Dr Kennedy told New Scientist that he had verified the images showed actual archaeological sites by asking a friend working in the Kingdom to photograph the locations.

The use of aerial and satellite imaging has been used in Britain to locate Iron Age and Roman sites in Britain, as well as Nazca lines in Peru and Mayan ruins in Belize.

But few archaeologists have been given access to Saudi Arabia, which has long been hostile to the discipline. Hardline clerics in the kingdom fear that it might focus attention on the civilisations which flourished there before the rise of Islam – and thus, in the long term, undermine the state religion.
1994, a council of Saudi clerics was reported to have issued an edict asserting that preserving historical sites "could lead to polytheism and idolatry" – both punishable, under the Kingdom's laws, by death.

Saudi Arabia's rulers have, in recent years, allowed archaeologists to excavate some sites, including the spectacular but little-known ruins of Maidan Saleh, a 2,000 old city which marked the southern limits of the powerful Nabataean civilisation.

For the most part, though, access to ancient sites has been severely restricted.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/g ... crets.html#

[Karna_A]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... oran/4024/#

Researchers with a variety of academic and theological interests are proposing controversial theories about the Koran and Islamic history, and are striving to reinterpret Islam for the modern world. This is, as one scholar puts it, a "sensitive business"

Al-Akwa' sought international assistance in examining and preserving the fragments, and in 1979 managed to interest a visiting German scholar, who in turn persuaded the German government to organize and fund a restoration project. Soon after the project began, it became clear that the hoard was a fabulous example of what is sometimes referred to as a "paper grave"—in this case the resting place for, among other things, tens of thousands of fragments from close to a thousand different parchment codices of the Koran, the Muslim holy scripture.

[SSridhar]

Muslims must abide by Western values, David Cameron - Hasan Suroor in The Hindu

Prime Minister David Cameron was on Saturday accused of reigniting the post-9/11 rows over Islam and fuelling Islamophobia after he used a speech at an international security conference in Munich to call for a more “muscular'' defence of Western values and a tougher approach to tackling Muslim extremism saying the “hands-off tolerance'' would not do.

In remarks that critics said had echoes of the Blair-Bush speeches, he said Muslims living in the West must abide by Western “values'' of tolerance, free speech and respect for women's rights. Arguing that “passive'' multiculturalism that allowed minority groups not to integrate had failed, Mr. Cameron said: “Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism.”

He proposed a social boycott of separatist Muslim groups urging Ministers to refuse to share platforms or engage with them. They should also be denied access to public money in what was seen as a veiled reference to the previous Labour government's policy of wooing Muslim groups with funds.

“Let's properly judge these organisations: Do they believe in universal human rights — including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government? Do they encourage integration or separatism? These are the sorts of questions we need to ask. Fail these tests and the presumption should be not to engage with organisations,” he added. Though Mr. Cameron took care to make a distinction between the religion of Islam and the political ideology of Islamist extremism saying it was wrong to link strong religious faith with radicalism, his remarks drew criticism from Muslim groups. The Muslim Council of Britain accused him of “targeting'' the Muslim community.

“Again it seems the Muslim community is being treated as part of the problem rather than part of the solution,” a spokesperson said.

Some Labour MPs and rights activists questioned the timing of Mr. Cameron's remarks which coincided with an aggressive march by the far-right English Defence League in the Muslim-dominated town of Luton against “Islamisation'' of Britain.

[partha]

Heads of 3 major European nations have now said that multiculturalism has failed. Interesting times ahead in Europe!

[Philip]

Cameron is quite right.

Firstly,you cannot have "mini-nations" with their own feudal rules,outside the common rule of law and behaviour within an inclusive society like Britain.These ethnic minorities came to Britain because of the attraction of its values and culture.Shreiking from mosque pulpits calling for "jehad" against the very ones who allowed you to enter in deserves a massive kick-up-the-backside and deportation.These immingrant communities should integrate themselves into the mainstream and if they cannot for example learn the national language,be deported.For the liberal,democratic nations of Europe,the sooner they start deporting those who do not conform the laws of the land,the better.

Secondly,you also cannot hide behind the right to practise one's own faith and abuse it as a tool to undermine the society that has welcomed you.This is a treasonable activity and stringent measures should be used to shut down such centres of intrigue and sedition and imprisonment and deportation for the preachers who propagate and instigate extremist behaviour amongst their followers.

[arun]

The German State of Hesse bans the burka / burqua:

German state risks Muslim anger after becoming first in the country to ban the burka

[arun]

Muslim families who recently arrived in Canada think it perfectly reasonable to impose their own mores on the people who so generously permitted them to settle rather than accommodate the mores of those who so generously permitted them to settle.

Begs the question that if mixed phys-ed classes and music were so Islamically un-halal why did the Muslim families in the first place even bother to migrate from no doubt Momin dominated societies to settle in a Kaafir dominated one ?:

Muslims want children excused from music, mixed phys-ed classes

[Gerard]

Indonesia mob attacks 'heretic' Muslims, kills 3

Local police chief Lt. Col. Alex Fauzy Rasyad said about 1,500 people - many with machetes, sticks and rocks - attacked about 20 members of the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect who were visiting their leader in his house in Banten province on Indonesia's main island of Java.

[RajeshA]

The German State of Hesse bans the burka / burqua:

German state risks Muslim anger after becoming first in the country to ban the burka

Most of the Muslims in Germany are from Turkey and they usually don't use the Burqa, so the minority who would oppose the Burqa would be a miniscule minority. Perhaps by doing so, they want to preempt that the Turks in Germany also fall for this conservatism.

[Arjun]

Muslims must abide by Western values, David Cameron - Hasan Suroor in The Hindu

Good to see the West moving beyond political correctness. For folks in India, where the equivalent statement that Muslims/ minorities must abide by Indic values is still construed as 'Hindutva policy' - this holds out hope that the Indic belief in a non-exclusivist, pluralist ethos can potentially have official sanction as the model for minorities as well.

[A_Gupta]

Does the following count as Islamophobia in Pakistan?
http://criticalppp.com/archives/39138

------

IMO, David Cameron is correct in stating that Muslims in the West must abide by Western political values - i.e., democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, common civil laws, rule of law, etc. I hope Cameron is not suggesting that family, tradition, and what we would call religious values must be made uniform.

[Arjun]

IMO, David Cameron is correct in stating that Muslims in the West must abide by Western political values - i.e., democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, common civil laws, rule of law, etc. I hope Cameron is not suggesting that family, tradition, and what we would call religious values must be made uniform.

All of the former set would have been just as effectively captured if Cameron had said that Muslims must abide by the law of the land, since the law of the land encapsulates all Western liberal values. He's clearly gone beyond the concept that Muslims must just 'abide by the law', to saying that an organization that does not believe in Western liberal values should face social consequences (if not judicial ones), even if no specific infraction of the law of the land is involved.

[arun]

Would be Mosque bomber and recent convert to Islam, Roger Stockham, rejects court appointed lawyer for belonging to the wrong variant of Islam. The lawyer as a member of the Shia / Shiite Muslim sect and as a worshipper at the Dearborn Mosque that was Stockham’s target was not acceptable:

Michigan mosque plot suspect fires attorney for being a Shiite Muslim

[arun]

Moving half-way around the world from Dearborn, USA to Umbulan, Indonesia. This time a bout of actual Muslim on Muslim violence inspired by differing interpretations of Muslim religious practice. However, this time around the targets of rage of a group of Muslims were not Muslims of the minority Shia / Shiite sect but rather Muslim’s of the minority Ahmadi / Ahmadiyah/ Ahmadiyya sect:

Six killed in clash between villagers and Ahmadiyah followers

[Prem]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... amism.html#
David Cameron stands by his attack on Islamism.
( Indian it was MAJ in UK it is MAC)

David Cameron is standing by his decision to attack multiculturalism and hit back at Labour claims that he was helping the far RightMinisters demanded that Mr Khan apologise for "smearing" the Prime Minister by linking him with the EDL, whose members demonstrated on the streets of Luton on Saturday, chanting "Muslim bombers off our streets" and holding banners aloft, some of which read "No more mosques".
"The Prime Minister was also criticised by Muslim groups for pronouncing that multiculturalism had failed in Britain because it had led to segregation. In a major speech tackling the threat posed by Islamic extremists, the Prime Minister warned that "hands-off tolerance" of unacceptable practices by minority communities had only served to encourage extremism. He called for a "muscular" defence of British values. Speaking to a conference in Munich, Mr Cameron said that the threat of terrorism must be confronted not only though intelligence and surveillance, but by taking on the ideology of Islamist extremism at home. "Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," the Prime Minister said. While a "passively tolerant" society allows its citizens to do what they like, so long as they do not break the law, a genuinely liberal country "believes in certain values and actively promotes them", Mr Cameron said. "Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law. Equal rights, regardless of race, sex or sexuality. It says to its citizens: This is what defines us as a society. To belong here is to believe these things.
"Each of us in our own countries must be unambiguous and hard-nosed about this defence of our liberty."
He said it was no longer enough for the authorities simply to proscribe groups which advocate violence, or to ban foreign preachers of hate from coming to the UK. "Non-violent extremists" who disparage democracy, oppose universal human rights and promote separatism were also "part of the problem", he said, because they lure young Muslims on to the path of radicalisation which can later lead them to espouse violence. Organisations of this kind had been "showered with public money" by presenting themselves as representatives of the Muslim community while doing little to combat terrorism, Mr Cameron said. "Let's properly judge these organisations: Do they believe in universal human rights – including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? "Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government? Do they encourage integration or separatism?
"Fail these tests and the presumption should be not to engage with organisations.

[Prem]

http://www.business-standard.com/india/ ... am/424100/
V V: A world without Islam

Like

it or not, Islam is the charged centrality in our daily news headlines. Not just the Arab world or Afghanistan, it seems to lie behind a broad range of international disorders: suicide attacks, car bombings, military occupations, resistance struggles, riots, jihads, fatwas, guerrilla warfare, threatening videos and 9/11. But can these things be taken as an Islamic phenomenon without taking into account the principal elements of the ground situation in different parts of the world? What if Islam never existed? Remove Islam from the path of history, would the world have been a different place: no clash of civilisations, no holy war, no terrorists? What if that weren’t the case at all?

Graham Fuller, a former CIA station chief in Kabul who later became a professor of history and author of numerous books on the troubled Arab world including The Future of Political Islam now comes with A World Without Islam (Little Brown/Hachette India, Rs 595) in which he says the world wouldn’t be much different from what it is today: “deep-rooted conflicts that still exist over ethnicity, economics, warfare, armies or geopolitics … don’t have anything to do with Islam and indeed existed long before Islam came into existence.”
mpt to investigate whether there was something unique in Islam that breeds violence and conflict, Fuller divides his book into three parts. Part One, “Heresy and Power” spans the rise of Mohammed to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire; Part Two, “Meeting the Civilisational Borders of Islam” has chapters on Islam in India and China and Islam in the West: Loyal Citizens or Fifth Column?: and Part Three, “The Place of Islam in the Modern World” with chapters on colonialism, nationalism, Islam, and the independence struggle and war, resistance, jihad and terrorism. As Fuller puts it, “I try to run through a whole lot of events and take Islam out of the equation and see what we are left with.” But these chapters are a kind of bird’s eye view of events; they cannot be taken as a definitive account of the histories of the period.
It is politics that decides the course of events, which he means the struggle to control natural resources and the means to have access to them. If this calls for tough diplomacy leading to military action, as often happened in the past, so be it: it is always self-interest dictated by vital economic interests that determines the course of history.

Thee underlying theme in book is the relationship between religion, power and the state. Fuller argues that the close relationship between religion and the state over much of western history has affected Christianity and Christian history vastly more than it has affected Islam and the Islamic world. For us, in India this would be hard to take because all round us from north Africa down to Malaysia we see the rise of Islamic states with other religions marginalised into the background. This makes many believe here that Islam is the most assertive force in both state and society, even in the secular West.

[svinayak]

For us, in India this would be hard to take because all round us from north Africa down to Malaysia we see the rise of Islamic states with other religions marginalised into the background. This makes many believe here that Islam is the most assertive force in both state and society, even in the secular West.

Modern Islamic state is a legacy of the colonization and is product of modernization. So this rise of Islam is also due to the western intervention in these regions for the last 200 years.

[Charlie]

Moving half-way around the world from Dearborn, USA to Umbulan, Indonesia. This time a bout of actual Muslim on Muslim violence inspired by differing interpretations of Muslim religious practice. However, this time around the targets of rage of a group of Muslims were not Muslims of the minority Shia / Shiite sect but rather Muslim’s of the minority Ahmadi / Ahmadiyah/ Ahmadiyya sect:

Six killed in clash between villagers and Ahmadiyah followers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBEni4KE ... detailpage]

GRUESOME beatings

Whats the world coming to when people do this to other people...?

Sialkot style barbarity..were there any reports abt Pakis spreading their message in Indonesia??

[Raghavendra]

Indonesia: Angry Muslim crowd attacks Java churches http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12393075

[Prem]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/02/ ... n-britain/#
A Bold, Courageous Move to Confront Islamists In Britain
Nile Gardiner is Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation.

This weekend, British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered the most important speech of his premiership so far. His address to the Munich Security Conference was a powerful condemnation of a deadly Islamist ideology that threatens the very fabric of British society, as well as a wholehearted rejection of “the doctrine of state multiculturalism.” All the more remarkable, this bold speech came amid a suffocating culture of political correctness in the United Kingdom, which has frequently stifled open debate during the past two decades.
The British government has identified Islamist extremism as the number one threat to national security. Cameron was absolutely right to point out that “the biggest threat that we face comes from terrorist attacks… we have got to get to the root of the problem, and we need to be absolutely clear on where the origins of these terrorist attacks lie. That is the existence of an ideology, Islamist extremism.”It is easy to see why these remarks were necessary. In 2009 British intelligence services revealed that there are 2,000 extremists involved in Islamist terrorist plots in the UK, with many more providing backing. MI6, the UK’s foreign intelligence agency, has since warned of a new wave of suicide bomb attacks by home-grown terrorists, with mounting fears over the radicalization of British Muslims.In his speech Cameron called for an end to the self-imposed cultural segregation of some Muslim communities, calling on all Britons to adopt “a clear sense of shared national identity that is open to everyone.” He also made it clear that the days of engagement by the British government with extremist Islamic groups that claim to be moderate are over. This is a clear, and welcome, break with the lax policies of his Labour predecessors.Prime Minister Cameron’s words in Munich were a huge step in the right direction. His government now needs to put them into action to ensure that the Islamist terrorist threat is emphatically defeated, both at home and abroad. That includes a commitment to winning the war in Afghanistan, and ensuring the Taliban do not retake power, as well as a determination to isolate the extremists at home, and crush the Al Qaeda networks that proliferate across the UK

[wig]

the english, germans, spaniards and now the french president think-Nicolas Sarkozy declares multiculturalism had failed

French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday declared that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it
We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him," he said in a television interview in which he declared the concept a "failure".

Prime Minister David Cameron last month pronounced his country's long-standing policy of multiculturalism a failure, calling for better integration of young Muslims to combat home-grown extremism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Australia's former prime minister John Howard and former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar have also in recent months said multicultural policies have not successfully integrated immigrants.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ailed.html

[arun]

“Muslim Insurgents” shoot dead Policeman in front of Mosque in Southern Thailand:

Police killed in front of Narathiwat mosque

[Prem]

Euro Leaders Finally Learning to Reject Islamist ‘Multiculturalism’http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/02/11/ ... lturalism/

Well the times, they are a changing. Leaders of the UK, Germany, and France have all recently called for the end of full blown Islamic multiculturalism and a restored push for a national identity among all its citizens.
Yesterday, in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy shocked many in his own country when he declared that multiculturalism is dead in The French Republic. Sarkozy made the surprising remarks on French television.
“Of course we must all respect differences, but we do not want… a society where communities coexist side by side…If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France… We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him.” – Sarkozy
While France had already rejected some of Germany and the UK’s multicultural practices (no Muslim veils in public or headscarves in schools), Sarkozy had been known as someone open to multiculturalism before becoming President in 2007. Now, he has made it clear that Muslims who move to France must pursue “a French Islam and not just an Islam in France.” Such words did not sit well with Islamic groups, but Sarkozy was merely echoing recent statements heard in England and Germany.
Last week, the UK’s British Prime Minister David Cameron told the annual Munich Security Conference that European nations have been too lenient on allowing anti-western view to spread unhindered in Islamic immigrant circles.
“We won’t defeat terrorism simply by the actions we take outside our borders. Europe needs to wake up to what is happening in our own countries…We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values. We have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream…We’ve been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them.” – Cameron

The United Kingdom, in recent years, had opened their doors to all types of pro-Sharia initiatives. Our friends across the pond have often been seen as a possible future for America when it comes to the spread of Sharia. (For a recent example see this NRB blog). The UK has a population of Muslims where Sharia is demanded and even 1 in 3 UK college Muslims think killing for Islam is okay. It is clear now that the British Prime minister knows their policies have failed.

That speech was given in Germany and one of those applauding in the audience was German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel herself had only last October made similar comments about the dangers of multiculturalism mixed with Islamists. She spoke in Potsdam, Germany where the crowd cheered her words of warning.

“(In) the beginning of the 1960s our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country. We kidded ourselves a while. We said: ‘They won’t stay, [after some time] they will be gone,’ but this isn’t reality. And of course, the approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side by side and to enjoy each other … has failed, utterly failed.” – Merkel

Merkel, who surprised few with her call for cultural integration, has now surprisingly become a model for Cameron and Sarkozy. The three pillars of Western Europe are now all on the same page when it comes to understanding the dangers of mixing multiculturalism and Islamists. But will America listen?

[arun]

Attack’s by one sect of Muslim’s targeting the Shrines, Processions and Places of Worship of another sect of Muslim’s over differences in interpretation of Islamic religious practise persists.

This time around members of the Shia / Shiite sect of Islam are at the receiving end of the depredation’s of their Muslim co-religionists of the Sunni sect in Iraq:

Iraq suicide bombing kills 38

Saturday’s attack was the second during the week. On Thursday there was a similar bout of religion inspired intra Muslim violence which also took place in Iraq:

Iraq car bomb kills nine Shiite pilgrims

And exactly a week today there was a similar bout of religion inspired intra Muslim violence which saw the Ahmadi / Ahmadiyah / Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in the cross hairs of violence meted out by their co-religionists of the Sunni sect in Indonesia:

Six killed in clash between villagers and Ahmadiyah followers

None of this helps advance the claim that Islam is a Religion of Peace.

[tejas]

[Sadler]

A friend desi forwarded this link to me. I must say it amazed me. Any thoughts from BRF-ers?
Frankly, with my limited perspective (my opinion of islam is no secret on BR Forum), this one just boggles the mind!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 499076.cms

[Charlie]

Petition to Ban Muslim Immigration to Australia

A PETITION tabled in Federal Parliament calling for a 10-year ban on Muslim immigration has been labelled bigoted by a leader of the Islamic community.

ACT senator Gary Humphries last Thursday tabled the petition, signed by three Sydneysiders, calling for a 10-year moratorium on Muslim immigration and a review of Australia’s immigration policy to ensure priority is given to Christians.

But the Liberal senator has defended his tabling of the “somewhat offensive” petition, which he acknowledges is potentially racist and bigoted, saying he presented it because it conformed with Senate standing orders.

“I certainly don’t agree with what’s in the document. I don’t agree with the sentiments expressed by the petitioners,” he told ABC Radio today.

“But I believe that they have the right to put that point of view in front of the members of the Federal Parliament.”

Senator Humphries said the petition expressed a view about Australia’s immigration policy and wasn’t racially vilifying. He added he was a friend of Canberra’s Islamic community.

But Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said the document was bigoted.

“For God’s sake we’ve gone beyond the white Australia policy and now we are talking about . . . a policy that only allows Christians,” he said.

“That’s hardly a loving Christian to be very selective in whom you want to enter in your home.”

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/an ... 6006204370

[JE Menon]

Sadler,

This sort of thing is not uncommon in India. I daresay there are thousands upon thousands of similar relationships and examples across the country...

There are cases that I know of, where Hindus would only do business with Muslims in certain areas because of the idea that they are absolutely trustworthy, whereas their own co-religionists are viewed as, well, more capable of playing fast and loose.

Often practical benefits and circumstantial friendships trump religious identity. I've heard for instance that Hindu-Muslim conmen combos are extremely effective because they prey upon people's prejudices. Not funny, but instructive nevertheless.

The complexity of the country is yes, mind-boggling.

Only in India yaar...

[jrjrao]

This Syed Noor, last seen getting weed-whacked on TV by Veena Malik, is now urgently directing a new movie -- to be released in two months.

How a new film may help popularize fundamentalism in Pakistan

Lahore, Pakistan
A man, a gun, and vengeance for "blasphemy."...it’s a poster for upcoming film "Aik Aur Ghazi" ("One More Holy Warrior") by eminent Pakistani screenwriter and director Syed Noor, which he says he plans to release within two months. And where Taseer’s killer Mumtaz Qadri was fêted mainly by lawyers and religious parties, the killer in Mr. Noor’s film, a convicted criminal, achieves redemption and hero status through murder.

Though director Noor denies any similarity between his film and the killing of Taseer, the film's expected commercial appeal is indicative of growing acceptability of extrajudicial killing in the name of Islam, argue experts.

[arun]

X Posted.

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the self proclaimed safe haven for the Mohammaddens of the Indian Sub-Continent, worlds first IEDological Muslim state and sole Islamic nuclear power, a member of the Muslim Sunni sect and Barelvi Sub-Sect attracts the predatory attentions of his fellow Muslim’s of the Sunni sect though of the Deobandi Sub-Sect.

Truly amazing that in a country that takes great pride is proclaiming its Muslimness, it is commonplace for one variant of Muslim to seek to exterminate another variant of Muslim for some arcane difference in the interpretation of Islamic ideology.

By some quirk of Lahori logic is this supposed to convince the rest of the world that Islam is a Religion of Peace?:

Pesh Imam gunned down in North Karachi

[Brad Goodman]

Muslim Cleric Plans White House Protest in Attempt to Spread Sharia Law in America

A Muslim cleric who called Americans “the biggest criminals” during a recent interview has announced he will hold a protest outside the White House, according to the Daily Mail.

Anjem Choudary, who once said “the flag of Islam will fly over the White House,” says he will lead a demonstration rallying Muslims to establish Sharia law across the United States.